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He wanted to create a dish that would help him draw customers in the city's competitive Indian and Pakistani restaurant market.

His heady mix of fresh spices, herbs and chillis, cooked in the distinctive flat-bottomed wok which gives the dish its name, became a hit.

Birmingham's famous Balti triangle is made up by curry houses in the city's Sparkbrook, Balsall Heath, and Moseley areas.

And as one of Britain's most popular meals, fans can also expect health benefits from tucking in.

Birmingham is home to the UK's main community of Balti restaurants and businesses - The Balti Triangle

Professor Murali Doraiswamy, director of the Mental Fitness Laboratory at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, America, said the key was ingredient tumeric.

Curcumin, a component of the spice, prevented the spread of amyloid plaques which add to the degradation of the brain in Alzheimer's disease in animal tests.

But if the council does go ahead with their trademark push they could be in for a long haul, if the row over the Melton Mowbray pork pie is anything to go by.

In 1999 the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association, a group of seven local manufacturers, applied to the EU to have their pies protected.

They wanted the name Melton Mowbray to only be applied to pork pies made within a 1,800 square mile around the town. They also wanted only uncured pork-filled pies baked with no support given the name.

But a large food corporation, who used the name on their own pies, were against the move.

After a near decade-long battle the protection was finally granted on April 4 2008.

Stephen Hallam, a spokesman for the pie association, said the council could be facing a long wait.

He said: 'It will be a long drawn-out process and it does take time, there is a protocol to follow and they would have to come up with a group involved with Baltis.

'They would also have to decide what criteria they would want a Balti to fulfil.

'We have got some fabulous regional foods in Britain and if the Balti has got the pedigree and all of that about it I would be for the idea.

'It's not any old curry, it's certainly unique and there a lot of people that are as focussed on them as I am on pork pies.'